Benvenuti! I’m not quite sure why I have decided to start a blog. I am not a particularly good writer, and rarely do I have a profound perspective that I feel compelled to share. I guess I have decided to blog because…a) I need to get more comfortable and savvy with the social media wave that is taking over the world and b) I am looking for one more outlet to express my sincere passion for something that is very close to my heart. Food!
Mangia Adesso means "Eat Now" in Italian. It should come of no surprise that I am of Italian-American decent, hence my use of a couple of the Italian words I actually know. (We Italian-Americans are a proud people, potentially a bit over confident thanks to the enormous popularity of the cuisine of our mother country). The title conveys my intense desire to eat great food, at every opportunity. I do not want to waste even one meal by eating something that is not satisfying. Now…my definition of great does not necessarily mean four-star gourmet. It can simply be a meal prepared with high quality ingredients, with some degree of skill, by someone that actually cares if the person who eats it will enjoy it!
I am a good cook, with aspirations to become a better cook. My intent here is not to share recipes with each blog post, because honestly, there are much better resources to use than me to track down good recipes. (I may from time to time share some winners, however). I guess my true intent of this site will be to share any number of gastronomic tales that I wish to memorialize in a blog. This may include a restaurant review, an enjoyable market or festival experience, my opinions on culinary entertainment and personalities, personal views on nutrition and wellness, family traditions, and the occasional recipe hit or miss.
I think it will be fun to have an archive of my culinary experiences throughout the year. Hopefully, others may find bits of value, inspiration, humor, or at least the minimal amount of entertainment needed to justify the ten minutes they dedicate to reading it!
Everything I know about cooking I learned from… The FOOD NETWORK! Ha! You probably thought I was going to say my mother, my father, my Nona, or someone like that! Well, believe it. Don’t get me wrong, both my father and mother are great cooks, however, I never really paid that much attention when I was young to what they were actually doing when preparing my meal. Nope, it was the Food Network. I was just out of college and had a finance gig in Chicago with fantastic hours. I was usually home to my apartment in the early evening, just in time to catch some great cooking shows before dinner. (Come to think of it… my first true exposure to learning to cook was probably watching the Frugal Gourmet cooking show on PBS when I was a kid. That show however probably leads to a discussion beyond the scope of this blog, therefore I prefer not to expand on my enjoyment of that show and/or views of its host (google it).
So what did I learn from food network? My first true culinary teachers where Emeril Lagasse, Tyler Florence, Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, and last but not least, Mario Batali. Ah yes, Mario, my fellow Italian-American paisan. Dang, if he didn't have a few nuggets of knowledge to pass along during every show of his phenomenal Molto Mario series. (If you have not seen the show, I highly suggest scouring the web or searching you TV schedule for it. I think re-runs now air on Cooking Channel). Just the sound of the silly Italian theme song makes me crave for his Mozzarella en Carozza!
What did I learn from Mario? There are a few critical items needed to produce a great dish…high quality ingredients, simple, straight forward techniques, prepared with love. This is the Italian way, and this is what produces that incredible family dining experience. Kosher salt, fresh herbs, high quality extra virgin olive oil (he used Frantoia on the show, it’s awesome), red pepper flakes, sharp knives and zest, zest, zest. Do NOT put oil in your pasta water, it will make the pasta slippery and the sauce will not adhere to the pasta. In Italy, it is all about the pasta, the sauce is the condimento. And whatever you do, for gosh sakes please DO NOT OVERCOOK THE PASTA!! Probably the best lesson from Mario is to make sure all of your diners are seated at the table when you drop the pasta in the boiling water, because when it is Al Dente, I am going to yell MANGIA ADESSO and you better be ready!
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